


to measure

by hellbeast



Series: hey, fashion disaster [2]
Category: Bleach, Kill la Kill
Genre: A Girl and Her Kamui, Barely Canon Compliant, F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-18
Updated: 2015-02-18
Packaged: 2018-03-13 13:22:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3383081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellbeast/pseuds/hellbeast
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aizen, as it turns out, does not take kindly to being called “Butterfly Boy”. Senketsu’s long-suffering sigh is drowned out by Ryuuko’s gleeful cackles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	to measure

**Author's Note:**

> direct sequel to _to outgrow_ , basically almost 4k of me playing around with senketsu as a zanpakuto and some fluff

Senketsu can feel the heat of Ryuuko’s blood; not anger, but the _thrill_ of the fight coursing through her veins.

Ryuuko is excited to be fighting again, to be doing something, as excited as Senketsu is to be worn. Those moments—they felt like eons, like eternities—between tearing himself from Ryuuko and marveling at his strange human zanpakuto form were too long. He has been too long without Ryuuko and yet, not very long at all.

He had panicked at first, once he realized that they were only reunited in her death. But now, it makes something in his chest writhe and squirm in sheer _happiness_ , because _**nothing**_ can separate them now. Forever, they will be a Girl and her Kamui.

“ _Synchronize, Kamui Senketsu!_ ” The words pour from Ryuuko’s mouth like honey and the roar in her blood thrums through them both. Being a kamui again is comfortable, even though his sense of self is now also within the dao blades. But as a kamui, he can _speak_ again.

“Ah, it’s good to be worn by you again, Ryuuko,” Senketsu smiles into the silence of the battlefield, pulling himself taut against her, from sleeve to skirt. He’s not stiff or starched, but the stretch feels good anyway.

“It’s good to see you too, Senketsu,” Ryuuko gives him a small little curl of her lips, the same smile she always gave him whenever they got stronger, whenever they pulled off a new move.

Still, the others around them are silent, and Ryuuko makes an idle twirl of one of the dao. Senketsu feels it, the motion of sweeping through the air, and for a moment he feels vertigo. He feels _so much_ now, and it still makes him giddy. He is being worn by Ryuuko and he can _feel_ ; there is nothing more he needs.

Someone, nearby, mumbles to Urahara, “She’s releasing her shikai already?”

Senketsu can feel Ryuuko’s smirk in the way she pulls her thumb along the hilt of the left dao.

“What, you think we’re that easy?” She drawls back at the stranger without looking, before she says to Senketsu, “You ready?”

“Always,” Senketsu promises. He knows now, that they belong together, like this. Always.

Ryuuko grins, sharp teeth and hot blood, and they disappear.

* * *

The man—the shinigami, though he does not feel like one, if he ever did—that Urahara wants them to kill is floating above all others and wrapped in white. Something about him feels utterly depraved. His power does not flow through him, as it does through most living things; instead it is still like a placid lake, underneath which some horrid creature dwells.

To get from here to there, it looks to be a straight shunpo upwards, but halfway there someone flickers into their path. Ryuuko barely spares a glance and Senketsu spreads more of his awareness into the dao, knowing what his partner is thinking. With barely a pause, Ryuuko pivots to gain momentum and brings the dao down, one after the other, and her opponent falls away with a choked noise of protest and an arc of blood. Senketsu siphons off the remaining reishi and uses it to hone the edges of his blades.

“Your aim has gotten better,” Senketsu observes. Ryuuko hums.

“You’ve gotten better at breaking down reiatsu, too.”

 _We work best when we work together_ , Senketsu doesn’t say, but Ryuuko must pick the thought up all the same because she rubs the edge of Senketsu’s sleeve with the very tips of her fingers, never once letting the dao lay idle.

“How do you think we should approach this Aizen fellow?”

Ryuuko hums again, pensive. If nothing else, Senketsu’s death and then her own has made her more level headed—

“I was thinkin’ we just beat his ass until Kisuke fixes whatever the hell got broke.”

A little. Slightly more level headed. On a good day.

“He must be very strong, for Urahara to ask us for help,” Senketsu wonders aloud, because Urahara Kisuke does not strike him as the type to _ask_ for much of anything.

“Or worse,” Ryuuko snarls, “He might be _sneaky_.”

Ryuuko hates sneaky and complicated. She much rather prefers a straightforward fight, with no tricks: strength against strength, skill against skill.

As though he had been waiting for it, Aizen turns his strange, mad eyes on Ryuuko, his zanpakuto glinting in the sunlight. His countenance is all sharp points and heavy reiatsu.

“Who are you, little insect?”

Ryuuko’s grip on the dao tighten, and her blood hisses like the ocean splashing harshly upon shore.

“Just the little beetle that’s gonna _kick your ass_ , Butterfly Boy.”

* * *

Aizen, as it turns out, does not take kindly to being called “Butterfly Boy”. Senketsu’s long-suffering sigh is drowned out by Ryuuko’s gleeful cackles.

* * *

Kisuke watches, a little horrified and a little awestruck, as Matoi tears through an Arrancar like wet tissue paper, hardly even slowing in her wild shunpo towards Aizen. Aizen says something about insects, Kyoka Suigetsu flashing brightly, to which Ryuuko replies with something about butterflies and the rest of the airspace above Karakura is silent as Aizen roars and throws himself at Ryuuko, reiatsu flaring dangerously.

“Where the hell did you find _that_ one?” Shinji asks from nearby, eyebrows disappearing underneath his bangs. He’s probably wondering what Ryuuko said that so easily riled Aizen, but Kisuke is more interested in the fact that the Final Hypnosis seems to have _broken_ ; that Ryuuko looked straight at Kyoka Suigetsu and _kept going_.

“Recently deceased in a small little town by the sea,” Kisuke finally answers, as he can’t seem to help himself from the dramatics, “killing Hollows with her full-fledged zanpakuto.”

Shinji’s choked noise of surprise pulls a smile from Kisuke, but before either can comment, a flare of reiatsu has both of them turning in time to watch Ryuuko block one of Aizen’s strikes and plant her foot in his gut. Aizen recovers from the blow and quickly steps in for another strike, body language triumphant. But Ryuuko parries again and then snarls something that sounds like “ _Senketsu Senjin!_ ” and her entire body explodes into spikes. Aizen snarls and flits away, but even from here they can see the blood that spills between them.

“She’s makin’ him bleed like it’s _nothin’_ , Kisuke,” Shinji growls, hand tightening on Sakanade. Of all those who want to see Aizen bloodied and broken, Kisuke supposes Shinji would be first. It must chafe, to watch a girl with not even two decades under her belt slowly destroy his greatest betrayer without breaking a sweat, while he sits helpless on the sidelines.

Kisuke could say something clever, or something deflecting, but the fact of the matter is that Ryuuko and Ichigo presented themselves as the only opportunities; humans with no idea how very _impossible_ they were. Beings with zanpakuto who hadn’t been subject to the Final Hypnosis. All the hopes and dreams of the Gotei 13, current and former, riding on the shoulders of two adolescents who shouldn’t even be thinking of Death, let alone what comes After.

It’s enough to make his stomach turn, his own hand in this game aside.

“To my understanding, Matoi-kun is very, very good at that,” is what he says at last, voice light and easy, never once looking away from the battle.

* * *

Kisuke is gonna owe her lunch for an _eternity_ , the way this fight is going.

Aizen isn’t the kind to throw himself into battle unless he’s sure he’s going to win, and the Senketsu Senjin had definitely caught him off guard, so now he’s playing it safe and trying to goad her into attacking him.

When the fight had first started—and yes, alright, maybe calling him Butterfly Boy had been a bit much, but what was the fun in fighting stiff boring people all the time? She’d gotten (and _still_ gets, damnit) enough of that from Satsuki—Aizen had merely flashed her his blade and called her an insect, as though she was supposed to be intimidated by the idea of him wielding a sword. When she hadn’t done anything other than taunt him right back and block his strikes, he had gone from smug to that angry sort of terror she knows all too well from going up against Ragyo: the sudden realization that you’re completely and utterly fucked, no matter what plans you had in mind.

It’s strange (and pretty gratifying) to be the one causing that kind of reaction this time around.

“What do you think?” She asks Senketsu, because all Kisuke’s training aside, she’s still no tactician. Besides, it’s nice to show all these stuck up friends of Kisuke’s that she’s no pushover. If she has to hear one more disbelieving “but she’s a _child_ ” or whispered “not even a century”, she’s gonna kick _everyone’s_ ass.

“I, too, would like to display our talents more, Ryuuko,” Senketsu plucks the thought right out of her head and runs with it, and he will _always_ be her favorite because she never has to be anything less than what she is for him, “But I feel as though we should perhaps wrap this up soon.”

“Matoi… Ryuuko?” Aizen says suddenly, a small smile creeping across his face. His hands flutter at chest level, as though he’s calling a time-out. Ryuuko stops, because this is the first time the man has spoken since his wordless roar of fury at having his own insult thrown back in his face.

“Yeah, what of it?”

“You are quite strong, Matoi-kun,” Aizen’s smile gets a little sharper, and that gross, stagnant power around him stirs.

“You got a point?” Ryuuko drawls, twirling one of Senketsu in idle irritation.

“Why exactly are you fighting me, Ryuuko-kun?” Ryuuko doesn’t know when or why Aizen decided to get so damn familiar with her, but this sudden conversation gives her time to observe the behavior of whatever power the creep’s drawing off of, because it’s definitely not his.

“A friend asked for a favor,” Ryuuko decides that honesty can’t hurt anybody. Aizen seems to be drawing from that weird, foreign reiatsu and using it to power his strikes and recover almost instantly. The weird thing is, it’s coming from him, even though she can tell that it’s not his. How does that even _work_?

“Aa, to Urahara Kisuke?” Aizen must take whatever face she’s making as affirmation because he goes on without hardly a pause, “How strange of him to ask you to clean up after messes of his own creation. After all, this situation came about because of _his_ meddling and _his_ prodding and _his_ experiments. And now, his friends have been turned into monsters, he has been exiled, he has turned children into his own personal little army and this entire town is in peril of destruction because Urahara Kisuke would not _dare_ let himself be outsmarted.”

Aizen leans towards her like they’re sharing a secret and the conspiring look on his face makes her sneer without thinking. Whatever the hell the power source is, it’s centralized in his sternum, dead center. _Like a target,_ Senketsu whispers to her, his eagerness to fight running through the dao blades with a shiver.

“Oi,” she cuts in, voice rough with annoyance, “Kisuke’s stupid plans aside, don’t try to act like you’re not the one doing the destroying and outsmarting here, asshole.”

“Why fight for Urahara Kisuke, Ryuuko-kun, when instead you could rule?”

She can kinda see how trying to turn his opponent against their allies would work normally, but she’s only here because Satsuki’s a big-browed control freak and Kisuke's a moron with horrible taste who doesn’t know how to ask for help like a normal person. She doesn’t really care about the shinigami or whoever the hell else these people are. She sure as hell doesn't want to _rule_ them.

“Ryuuko,” Senketsu’s voice is low. She can feel him extending his reach, brushing his reiatsu softly against the foreign power in Aizen’s chest. It brushes back, curious and hungry. _Alive_. If it’s alive, it's gotta be some kinda parasite, or something. Which is honestly _so fucking gross_.

She glances behind her and realizes that Aizen’s monologuing wasn’t solely for her benefit. The other shinigami (or whatever) are definitely within hearing distance—probably wanting to get a good look at her fighting Aizen—and there are a lot of grim looks and hushed conversations happening back there. Kisuke looks pale and something like regretful, but he meets her eyes steadily.

“Straight to Bankai, huh?” Ryuuko mutters as she turns back to Aizen, twirling both dao.

“We could make it back to Honnou for supper,” Senketsu agrees. That’s a good point; she’s definitely gonna be hungry after this.

“Foolish _child_ ,” Aizen sneers down at them, “You are centuries too young for your Bankai to so much as _scratch_ me.”

“Man, you geezers are really stuck on this whole age thing,” Ryuuko scowls. She can feel Senketsu humming, practically vibrating against her skin. She understands his excitement: they’ve been working on Bankai since before Kisuke even showed up.

So without further fanfare, she twirls both dao and draws upon that bond between her and Senketsu, woven into her very DNA.

“ _Jin’i Ittai, Kamui Senketsu!_ ”

As always, Senketsu is right beside her: “ _Bankai, Senketsu Kisaragi!_ ”

* * *

Through the thick cloud of reiatsu, Ryuuko is a beacon in the sky.

He can see lines of purple and red racing along Senketsu and through her hair, the colors building brighter and brighter and then exploding outward in a wave of light.

Kisuke can feel nothing but awe. Ryuuko has two separate Bankai releases, one of which is released by her _zanpakuto spirit himself_. Not to mention that as soon as the releases had be spoken, all the ambient reishi within the replica Karakura had made itself manifest before funneling itself _into_ Ryuuko.

A Bankai that utilizes the natural reishi around it? Anyone else and he would’ve called it impossible. But, as he watches the last furls of dust and energy fade, Kisuke realizes that Matoi Ryuuko is nothing if not habitually _impossible_ to conceive.

The first, absurd thought that he has is that Senketsu now has two eyes, and they have become less like pauldrons and more like wings, sitting higher and sharper up on Ryuuko’s shoulders. It shouldn’t be his first thought, because Ryuuko is literally _glowing_ ; most of her abdomen and torso are still bared, but she’s gained a headpiece and her hair is bright yellow and flaring upwards. More than that, though, is the fact that the ambient reishi, glowing a soft gold, is flickering around her like a shield at rest. And Senketsu—once twin dao blades, though now looking more like... scissors?—are a bright, loud red.

“Are you done with your little light show?” Aizen wonders, and his voice is sheer condescension. He seems to have forgone taunts and trickery for an affected indifference.

“Come then, insect,” he sneers, even though Kisuke can see the fine tremor running along the length of Kyoka Suigetsu, “Once we're done here, I'll be heading to take care of your precious _Honnou_.”

From here, Kisuke can see Senketsu’s eyes widen, and then narrow even as Ryuuko goes predator-still.

 _Mistake,_ he thinks. Big, big mistake. 

* * *

“ _Sen’i Soushitsu_ ,” Senketsu snarls with Ryuuko’s mouth into the shocked silence that follows.

* * *

It takes Kisuke a moment to understand.

Ryuuko is now behind Aizen, when before— _milliseconds_ before—she had been across from him. Kisuke didn’t see her so much as twitch. Aizen’s eyes are wide and a trickle of blood begins to spill over his lips. Kyoka Suigetsu is visibly shaking in his grip. The Hougyoku is bared, pushing through the flesh and cloth of his chest, grotesque black lines flaring across his torso.

The Hougyoku pulses once, twice and then... _shatters_ into dust, shards ringing musically as they scatter.

Aizen knees cave, and he falls.

* * *

Ryuuko twirls Senketsu one last time and then sheathes both blades. Senketsu Kisaragi slowly melts away and the Jin’i Ittai fades until it’s just her and Senketsu, still one but currently two. She could reseal the shikai—and she’ll have to, eventually—but well, it’s been a while since she could talk to Senketsu without meditating.

 _I missed you as well, Ryuuko_ , Senketsu promises, just for her. She runs a hand down the front of the uniform, as though brushing off dirt, but Senketsu takes it for the hug that it is.

It’s still so quiet; it hardly feels like any of the Shinigami are even breathing. She can feel dozens upon dozens of eyes on her, assessing, wondering, hating, _fearing_. Suddenly, Ryuuko is tired.

“Kisuke, c’mon,” she pleads, though she’ll deny it to her dying—oh, _whatever_ —breath, “Mako’s mom is making croquettes tonight.”

Kisuke comes to stand next to her in a flash of shunpo, that stupid fucking hat—that _ugly ass_ hat that started _all_ of this—still held to his chest. He doesn't make mention of the fact that Mako's mom _always_ makes croquettes, but she doesn’t look at him, keeps her eyes trained on where Aizen’s body is dissipating into reishi.

“Kisuke,” she begins again, though to say what, she doesn’t know. She doesn’t want to be here. She doesn’t belong here. If the rest of them don’t stop looking at her like that, like she’s _worse_ than what Aizen was, just because she's _stronger_ , she doesn’t know what she’ll do.

“Urahara-san,” Senketsu speaks up, “It’s been a long time since I’ve had the pleasure of eating a Mankanshoku croquette. It would be rude to keep them waiting.”

Kisuke nods his head, “You’re right—”

Ryuuko is using shunpo to get back to her bike before he can even finish. Nobody tries to stop her.

* * *

Ryuuko flees—and he’d never thought he would be saying that about her, of all people—to the edges of the replica Karakura as though she’s expecting pursuit. Kisuke can’t blame her.

“She saved all of you,” Kisuke reminds the Gotei 13, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on where Ryuuko had been staring, at the remnants of Aizen Sousuke.

The remaining Espada—all three or four of them—are long gone, and Kisuke wonders what will happen to Hueco Mundo now. If any shinigami will even be able to enter, anymore.

“Urahara, that _infant_ —” Yamamoto begins. Already, Kisuke can hear Kurotsuchi muttering under his breath about running tests, and Soi Fon is saying something biting about loyalties and Kisuke… well, he doesn’t really want to listen to this.

“I’m sure you can figure this out yourselves,” he finds himself saying, with that mean bite he hasn’t needed to use in _decades_ , “After all, you seemed so sure of yourselves a century ago. And, as I’m sure you all heard, we have to be back in time for dinner.”

There’s some grumbling and uneasy body language at his casual reminder of his exile, but no forthcoming apology or even agreement; the Vizard all look varying degrees of unimpressed and annoyed.

“Screw this shit,” Shinji sneers, spitting in the general direction of the captains. Hiyori and Lisa look mad enough to draw blood, but the others just seem tired. Kisuke can understand the sentiment; Aizen is dead—not imprisoned, not awaiting “Justice”, but finally _dead_ , even if it wasn't at their hands—and yet, things have hardly changed for them. He supposes it had been a bit much to think that the Gotei 13 would ever go so far as to admit they were wrong.

“Call me when you get back in town,” Shinji demands of him, throwing a wave over his shoulder before he and the others depart, flickering away with their shunpo-sonido hybrids. 

No one stops them.

“Kurosaki-kun,” Kisuke calls, fitting his hat back on his head. He would rather not misplace it on the way back to Honnou, even at the risk of invoking Ryuuko’s ire, “We also need to have a talk upon my return.”

Ichigo—still looking at shell-shocked as Kisuke feels, though he is scowling fiercely at the amassed captains—manages a shaky nod.

Kisuke smiles his favorite, sharp smile that never bodes well for its recipient and gives the Yamamoto a mocking, exaggerated bow. Then he leaves.

* * *

“Did you find Urahara-san?” Mako’s mom asks, handing Ryuuko a stack of plates. Ryuuko dutifully sets the table, even though when it comes to the croquettes, hardly anyone actually uses anything but their bare hands.

“Yeah, he had some old business to take care of, so I helped out.”

“Is he joining us for dinner?”

“Yeah, but he had to, uh, check in with Satsuki.”

The last Ryuuko heard of them, Bakuzan had been shrieking against Benehime and Satsuki had been bright-eyed and practically been baying for blood, completely unmoved by Kisuke’s nervous _Now, now, Kiryuin-san!_

And that had been _before_ Ira got involved. Honestly, Ryuuko doesn’t want to know.

Mako comes running in, and as soon as she sees them, she lets out a squeal.

“Ryuuko-chan got Senketsu back!”

Ryuuko spreads her arms and Mako throws herself into them without hesitation. Senketsu chuckles, the sound reverberating deep in Ryuuko’s sternum. It makes her chuckle herself, and then Mako giggles and even her mom hides a smile behind her hand.

“I am glad to be back, Mako,” Senketsu tells her, and Ryuuko can feel the suspenders pulling taut in a way that means he’s smiling around her torso.

“I’m gonna change so that you can eat too, okay?” Ryuuko is already headed to Mako’s room to find a change of clothes, because shattering that weird orb thing of Aizen’s took a lot out of them and she can feel how badly he wants some croquettes of his own.

“You spoil me, Ryuuko,” Senketsu sighs dramatically, but he’s preening, even as she pulls on a t-shirt and shorts.

“Yeah, yeah,” Ryuuko shoves a foot under his skirt and flips him over. The resulting _fwump_ as he goes skirt over top _never_ gets old.

“How cruel!” Senketsu cries as he struggles to unflip his fabric, rustling away from her and hopping towards the table. She can feel his laughter, though.

Ryuuko can feel the smile curling at her lips, and ducks her head to hide it.

“Mako bets Ryuuko-chan is finally happy, huh?” Mako stops next to her and takes her hand. Ryuuko can feel the blush spreading across her face, but she can’t stop smiling either way.

“Well, yeah,” she admits, absently noting that Kisuke is back (looking frazzled), Satsuki and Ira along with him (both looking satisfied), and she is pointedly _not thinking about it_ , “My family’s together again.”

Mako smiles so big that Ryuuko can’t _not_ press a kiss to her cheek; it's physically impossible to avoid. She has her family here, as ridiculous and weird as it is, and they _want_ her and Senketsu here. They can be happy here; they _are_ happy here. What’s not to smile about?

When they all sit down at the table, just as Mako’s mom is bringing in the fourth tray of croquettes, Senketsu looks up at her from the tatami and smiles.

_Yes, Ryuuko; it is good to be home._

**Author's Note:**

> **A more in-depth look at Ryuuko’s and Senketsu's abilities**
> 
> They have shikai and bankai like the shinigami, but Ryuuko and Senketsu can/have to carry out their own attacks individually (to make up for being horrible at kido and hado, which is due to the fact that Life Fibers channel energy differently, so they can't really do them at all…)
> 
>  _Sen’i Soushitsu_ (Fiber Lost) was Ryuuko’s finishing move against Satsuki’s Goku uniforms. Now, as zanpakuto and wielder, it’s more akin to a quick, brutal strike aimed at a targeted weak spot. As some sort of Shinigami, Ryuuko has little need of splitting Life Fibers. Instead, Senketsu targets the weakest spot of the reishi/reiatsu that holds a being together (yikes).
> 
>  _Senketsu Senjin_ (Senketsu Blade Flash): blades protrude from all over Senketsu’s form
> 
>  _Senketsu Shippu_ (Senketsu’s flying form): the skirt grows in length and gets jet propulsion and the crest becomes wings
> 
> Shikai – _Senjin Shippu_ (combination of Senketsu Senjin and Senketsu Shippu)
> 
> Bankai* – _Jin’i Ittai_ (Ultimate Life Fibers Synchronization) and _Senketsu Kisaragi_ (Senketsu Fashion Week)
> 
> *Before, Senketsu Kisaragi was Ryuuko absorbing all the Life Fibers of everyone in Honnou, but now she and Senketsu take in the ambient/natural reishi from around them and add it permanently to their own reserves. In order to activate Bankai, Ryuuko has to release Jin’i Ittai and Senketsu has to reléase Senketsu Kisaragi. As such, there are three different “levels” of Ryuuko’s Bankai: one where only Jin’i Ittai is released; one where only Senketsu Kisaragi is released and one where both are released. Only the last is their “true” Bankai release state.
> 
> Yes, essentially in this verse, Ryuuko's Sen'i Soushitsu functions like the Soukyoku, hence Aizen's quick but sure defeat.
> 
> [writing/art tumblr](http://manymouths.tumblr.com)


End file.
